The legal system has designed a way for the injured victim of an accident to obtain financial help, so that he or she can get back to the point in their life that they had reached, before the accident’s occurrence. That financial help comes from a payout, one that gets made by the person responsible for the accident.

What is the typical size of a payout?

Results of a survey that was taken by some personal injury lawyers showed that at least ½ of the accident victims received a payout in the range of $3000 to $25,000. The same survey showed that slightly more than ¼ of the victims got payouts of more than $25,000. Further results from the same survey indicated that roughly 16% of the victims received more than $75,000, and 16% received less than $3,000.

What different factors affect the payout’s size?

The more serious the nature of the victim’s injury, the greater becomes the size of the amount of money that gets paid to that same victim, as per the Personal Injury Lawyer in St Thomas. An insurance company always places certain limits on the policyholder’s insurance policy. The limits on the defendant’s policy affect the payout’s size.

Victims/claimants that retain an attorney should expect to obtain a larger amount of money. By hiring a member of the legal community, a claimant gains access to help, when it comes time to negotiate a settlement, or, if necessary, take the case to court. In other words, money spent, in order to retain a legal representative, helps to ensure the receipt of a larger payout.

Sometimes an insurance company gets a claimant to accept it first offer. In that way, the length of a claimant’s wait for a payment gets shortened. On the other hand, the absence of negotiations results in the granting of one of the smaller payouts. In other words, it pays to put time and effort into bargaining with the insurance adjuster.

While payouts required by a court tend to be much greater than those achieved by negotiations, some claimants receive a generous amount of money, without meeting the opposing party in a courtroom. Yet no claimant can face an opponent in court until he or she has filed a lawsuit.

In other words, the filing of a lawsuit has an effect on the size of the compensation/payout given to the claimant. That fact holds true, even if the person that filed the lawsuit never faces the opponent in court. How is that possible?

The mere threat of a lawsuit convinces the insurance company that the claimant means business. The insurance company tends to offer more money, if it learns about the plaintiff’s readiness to pursue his or her case in a courtroom.